The Green Road by Anne Enright - BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY

The Green Road by Anne Enright

Thank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Like I said last week, I'm ready to give up Book Beginnings. My time as host has run it's course.

Does anyone want to take over this weekly event to host and make it your own? Please let me know in a comment if you are willing and interested.

Alternately, we can call it good and bring down the curtain. Those interested can continue sharing opening sentences on First Line Friday, hosted by Carrie at Reading is My Super Power.

I'll keep posting one more week, until September 4. If someone volunteers to take over after that, wonderful. If not, I'll see you on First Line Friday!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Later, after Hanna had made some cheese on toast, her mother came into the kitchen and filled a hot water bottle from the big kettle on the range. 

-- from The Green Road by Anne Enright. With an opening sentence like that, it's no surprise that this novel is about a large Irish family. It just sounds like it, with cheese toast. a hot water bottle, and a big kettle. 

I read Enright's Booker Prize winner, The Gathering, but haven't read any of her other books. I finished this one earlier this week. I liked it, especially the last third, but it didn't grab me as strongly as The Gathering did. The first two thirds read like separate short stories of the lives of the four adult children in the family. Their lives are so different, that they really were separate stories. Only when the four kids gather at their mother's house for Christmas do the four stories come together, although only in the sense that the four characters were in the same room together. There is still no overlap in their stories because they had such individual lives. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below.

 

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 asks participants to share a two-sentence teaser from their book of the week. If your book is an ebook or audiobook, pick a teaser from the 56% point.

Anna at My Head is Full of Books hosts The Friday 56, a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please visit My Head is Full of Books to leave the link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from The Green Road:

Dan was so small in the distance that Billy could not tell if he was heading out or coming home. He sat there, sun cream in hand, waiting for Dan to turn back in, and, after a long while, -t seemed that he had -- definitely, Billy thought -- Dan was definitely closer now.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Spanning thirty years, The Green Road tells the story of Rosaleen, matriarch of the Madigans, a family on the cusp of either coming together or falling irreparably apart. As they grow up, Rosaleen's four children leave the west of Ireland for lives they could have never imagined in Dublin, New York, and Mali, West Africa. In her early old age their difficult, wonderful mother announces that she's decided to sell the house and divide the proceeds. Her adult children come back for a last Christmas, with the feeling that their childhoods are being erased, their personal history bought and sold.

Good-Bye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Good-Bye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton

Thank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays. 

And speaking of goodbyes, I'm ready to give up Book Beginnings. I forgot to post again last week, even though I put it on my calendar. It's like now that I've retired from work, I have no time to blog. Crazy! My time as host has run it's course.

Does anyone want to take over this weekly event to host and make it your own? Please let me know in a comment if you are willing and interested. 

Alternately, we can call it good and bring down the curtain. Those interested can continue sharing opening sentences on First Line Friday, hosted by Carrie at Reading is My Super Power.  

I'll keep posting until September 4 (assuming I remember). If someone volunteers to take over after that, wonderful. If not, I'll see you on First Line Friday!

MEANWHILE, MY BOOK BEGINNING

When you are getting on in years (but not ill, of course), you get very sleepy at times, and the hours seem to pass like lazy cattle moving across a landscape.

-- from Good-Bye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton. This classic book has been siting on my TBR shelf for a long, long time. I recently went through my shelves and pulled out a stack of short books, mostly novellas, to read when I need a quick book as a break between the chunksters I've been reading lately. 

I didn't realize just how short this one is until I started reading it. It's 144 pages, which makes it a novella. But the font and spaces between lines are oversized. It's easy to understand how it was originally published as a short story in the April 1934 issue of The Atlantic Monthly. It is a sentimental and bittersweet story of a beloved, now aging, housemaster at a British boys' school. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below. If you participate or share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so other people can find your post.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 asks participants to share a two-sentence teaser from their book of the week. If your book is an ebook or audiobook, pick a teaser from the 56% point. 

Anna at My Head is Full of Books hosts The Friday 56, a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please visit My Head is Full of Books to leave the link to your post. 

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Good-Bye, Mr. Chips:

What a host of little incidents, all deep-buried in the past— problems that had once been urgent, arguments that had once been keen, anecdotes that were funny only because one remembered the fun. Did any emotion really matter when the last trace of it had vanished from human memory; and if that were so, what a crowd of emotions clung to him as to their last home before annihilation!

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Throughout his forty-three-year tenure at Brookfield, "a good public school of the second rate" in eastern England, Arthur Chipping has been Mr. Chips to his students. From his unpolished first years during the Franco-Prussian War through the radical changes of the twentieth century and the outbreak of the First World War, Mr. Chips has shaped many young lives. But Chips has been inspired as well--by the unremarkable and the extraordinary alike, by his colleagues, by a woman who will change him forever, and not least, by his children, "thousands of them, all boys."

Since it was first published in 1934 to international success, Goodbye, Mr. Chips has never been out of print. It was followed by a collection of stories, To You, Mr. Chips, and provided the basis for two award-winning feature films, a stage musical, a radio play, and two television adaptations. Based on author James Hilton's experiences as a student at the Leys School, Cambridge, this short novel endures as a revelation of the difference one good teacher can make, and "what the better emotions do toward making people important."

Risk Management by Reid Winslow -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Risk Management by Reid Winslow

Reid Winslow's second thriller, Risk Management, explores a dark world of corruption and double (triple?) dealing. Larry Welk makes an almost anti-hero of a protagonist as a dry drunk, disbarred lawyer working as private detective. This time, he's working off the books after his former lover is shot by Chicago police and Larry is the main suspect. 

When Larry meets Birdie Thurmond, a whip smart but socially awkward state auditor, though a dating app, he wants her help with the case as much as he wants a little romance. Birdie is willing – on both counts – but it's quid pro quo because Birdie is working on her own mystery -- trying to figure out why so many people involved in a city water project keep turning up dead. The next one may be her.

There’s a lot to keep track of in these dual storylines, but Winslow does a good job of keeping both on track. The novel builds slowly, but once it hits its stride, it speeds right along to an exciting and satisfying ending.

NOTES

Risk Management is billed as the second book in Winslow's Narrow Track series. There is overlap, but both stand on their own just fine. In the first, The Dead Bell, the protagonist is a hardboiled Chicagoland cop named Tom Edison. In my review of The Dead Bell, I described Edison as having "an alcoholic wild man for a sidekick." That wild man is Larry Welk, sobered up but still wild in Risk Management. Edison makes a cameo, but isn't part of the story. Both books are good entertainment so I hope Winslow continues the series. 

I'm not wild about the cover. I find the red color and sightless stone head disturbing. But the image makes sense and ties in with the story. 

Reid Winslow is a pen name for former attorney turned countryman author George Mead. I know George and we even worked together for a brief time a long time ago. Now he is living the life so many lawyers dream of. Good work!

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Exiled from Texas, disbarred, and white-knuckling sobriety in the Midwest, criminal defense attorney Larry Welk has learned to manage risk the hard way: by living inside it.

A carefully curated dating profile lands Larry a date with Birdie Thurmond, a brilliant state auditor who believes risk is just a math problem waiting to be solved. Birdie has a spreadsheet for everything, and Larry can't shake the feeling he's already been reduced to a set of variables. The night ends awkwardly, and they part ways.

Then a late-night call detonates Larry's fragile new life.

His former lover Darlene Pepper has been shot eight times by police and is clinging to life in a Chicago hospital. Before Larry can even process the news, Darlene is dead and Larry is the prime suspect. The motive points to a fortune that vanished years ago: millions stolen by Darlene's ex-husband, Larry's former client, money that was never recovered.

Now Larry is trapped between the law he once practiced and the danger he can't outrun: federal investigators closing in, a killer who seems to know his every move, and secrets that don't stay buried. With nowhere left to turn, Larry makes one desperate play: trust Birdie, the one woman convinced every problem has a solution if you run the numbers long enough.

But Birdie's equations never accounted for a man like Larry.

State of the Union by Nick Hornby -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

State of the Union by Nick Hornby

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

When Louise arrives, Tom is already halfway through a pint, and he's doing The Guardian's cryptic crossword.

-- from State of the Union by Nick Hornby.

State of the Union is a 2019 novella about a couple examining their marriage in a series of ten conversations at a pub before their weekly counseling sessions. It sounds like just the sort of story Hornby tells best. I found it on my TBR shelf and think it will make a good spacer between a couple of huge books I'm reading this month. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from State of the Union:

Outside the pub, Louise is furious. 

“ What the HELL were you thinking of?” 

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Tom and Louise meet in a pub before their couple's therapy appointment. Married for years, they thought they had a stable home life--until a recent incident pushed them to the brink.

Going to therapy seemed like the perfect solution. But over drinks before their appointment, they begin to wonder: what if marriage is like a computer? What if you take it apart to see what's in there, but then you're left with a million pieces?

Unfolding in the minutes before their weekly therapy sessions, the ten-chapter conversation that ensues is witty and moving, forcing them to look at their marriage--and, for the first time in a long time, at each other.

July 2026 Monthly Wrap Up -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

July 2026 Monthly Wrap Up

July was a good reading month for me. How about you? 

Here's a list of the books I read in July, in the order I read them, not as shown in the photo. Those not in the photo were audiobooks I read with my ears. 

• The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. Not a favorite but I’m happy to get it off my shelf, thanks to the TBR 26 in '26 Challenge. 

• Social Justice Fallacies by Thomas Sowell, an economics book. It was a little repetitive of other books I've read by him, but his ideas bear repeating so I didn't mind. 

• Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream by John Derbyshire. I didn't know what to expect from this one and finally got to it because it was on my TBR 26 in '26 list. I'm so glad I finally read it because it is a delightful novel about Chinese immigrants and marriage.

• Troubles by J.G. Farrell, one of the books in his Empire Trilogy. The three books share common themes related to the end of the British Empire, but do not have to be read in order. I read The Siege of Krishnapur (Indian Uprising of 1857) a while back and The Singapore Grip also in July. This one is about a group of English people living in a dilapidated seaside hotel in Ireland at the beginning of the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921).  It is funny, sad, short, and excellent. Troubles was published in 1970 and awarded The Lost Booker Prize in 2010.

• Learning to Heal: One Woman’s Journey Through Medicine by Liz Casper records her experiences in medical school, practice, and as a cancer patient. She illustrates each step in her career with a story about a particular patient, which makes her memoir feel immediate and human. Excellent!

• Here One Moment by Lianne Moriarty. Her books always give full entertainment value. I prefer the audiobooks because the Australian accents give the stories a real sense of place. 

• Doctor Fischer of Geneva or the Bomb Party by Graham Greene is a short book that will linger for a long time. I read it with a group of Bookstagrammers working our way through all his novels, one every other month. 

• Dunbar by Edward St. Aubyn, a  retelling of King Lear. This was a highlight of the month. Every Hogarth Shakespeare I've read had knocked my socks off. Interestingly, Dunbar reimagines King Lear as the battle between an aging media mogul and his offspring over who will control his empire. Sound familiar? The book came out only months before Succession aired, which told King Lear through the same plot. Sometimes ideas get plucked from the universe at the same time. 

• Harm Done by Ruth Rendell. Book 18 in her Inspector Wexford Series, this one involves domestic violence and the victims seeking protection at the local women's shelter. 

• A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler. I’m an Anne Tyler completist so am reading all of them. They all involve families but this one didn't have much plot beyond following a particular family in Baltimore (of course) through several generations in one house. 

• Risk Management by Reid Winslow, a dual storyline thriller that built to an exciting ending. Read my review here. 

• The Singapore Grip by J.G. Farrell, also in his Empire Trilogy, which I read out of order but it didn't matter. This is the story of the British community in Singapore when the Japanese invade in 1941. It is a long, shaggy story highlighting the disparities between the British and Asian inhabitants. It is definitely one of the top books of my reading year.

• A History of the World in 10½ Chapters by Julian Barnes, linked short stories. The opening story retold Noah's Ark from the perspective of a bug stowaway and was hilarious. The rest of the stories had a link -- strong or weak -- to Noah's Ark. All in all, a mixed bag, but I think that of all story collections.

• Discovering Main Street: Travel Adventures in Small Towns of the Pacific Northwest by Foster Church. The third TBR 26 in ‘26 for me in July. While a lot of the specific information was outdated (my fault for waiting so long to read this 2010 book), there was still plenty here to inspire a long list of road trip ideas. 

• The Summons by Peter Lovesey, his 3d Peter Diamond mystery. I was happy to find that this one brought Diamond back to Bath, the setting of the first book.